FRIENDS AND FUN STUFF

I can't remember if I showed the above photo before, and I am too lazy to check back through my blog right now. These are my friends here at home that I pal around with when possible.  The photo shows Sue, me and Joan at the Olde Green Cupboard booth at Mid-Atlantic Quilt Fest. We just couldn't get enough of that booth! Gloria, the shop owner, and the other gals there, were just so friendly and fun that we wanted to keep hanging out with them. Also, notice that they made up my Indian Paintbrush pattern (in background) and had kits! They are traveling around to different shows, so if you see them in a show near you, stop by and say hello, and buy a kit! Yes, I am shameless, but truthfully, they had other really great kits too. So you could buy Indian Paintbrush and another kit as well!This darling notebook was made for me by my friend Sue. Wool applique, as you can see. It is darling! Don't we all love friends who know just what we like?!

And just to prove that I have been sewing, or at least I was sewing before the wedding, here is a little progress that I have made on my House Sampler quilt. This is a pattern by Cheryl Wall of Country Quilts. Follow that link to see some of her beautiful creations. 

I am still suffering from the illness attacked me in Montana. Oh, I haven't even mentioned Montana. I drove with my daughter and grandkids back to Missoula after the wedding. I will have to remember to share more of that when my brain clears.  Meanwhile, I need to grab a diet coke and go back to the sewing room and get busy! Ideas are brewing in my brain. Are they real or delusions brought on by illness? Wait and see!

WINDOWS ON THE WORLD

Here I am in front of my computer this morning, opening my (Microsoft) Windows on the World! I have been catching up on blogs after being incommunicado for the past week. I love that I can look in on you through your window in whatever part of the world you reside! I have favorite blogs in Australia, Europe, Canada, U.K., U.S. and even Japan! Thanks for sharing your talents and your enthusiasm, and for coming to visit me!

I have been doing a little sewing to sooth my soul. It feels good! I finished my "star" top, and will get a photo of it soon. Meanwhile I am back to writing directions for a project I completed last year. Remember my funny little eagle? Well, I have had the pleasure of enjoying him on my own wall for a while, since I never got around to writing up a pattern last year. Usually my quilts go to the shop and stay there. No, I don't own "the shop", but they do promote and sell my patterns and so many of my quilts are on display to help do that. (I can arrange for other shops to borrow them, however!)
I adapted this little eagle from a picture of a vintage quilt that I liked. He has now been dubbed the "Patchalittle Eagle". I also did a wool pillow from the same basic design that you can find on my free patterns page on my Patchalot Patterns website.

At least I got that part of the instructions done last year! Now I have this one scheduled as a class for June. The border for this is adorable, if I do say so myself. I will show that next time. Maybe it will entice you to come back!
Have a happy day!

BOUND AND BEAUTIFUL

Both of my new quilt designs are bound and beautiful, (she humbly admits). The top photo shows the design I am calling Wintergreen. You would not believe how much I tweaked this design, over and over and over, and this is the final result! Thanks EQ6!!! I was going to call it Fiddlesticks, because I spent so much time fiddling with it, but then I saw a new pattern out with that name! The competition is brutal! The main fabrics for both these quilts comes from Judie Rothermel's Spirit of the Season II fabric line, by Marcus Brothers. This fabric is so rich and luscious! I will be teaching this class at What's Your Stitch 'N Stuff in November.

The applique design I named Cotillion. I made this twice. The first one I made by hand applique. I enjoy doing that, and will keep it on display at my house! The second time I used machine blanket stitch. I am teaching this one at A Different Touch, which happens to be the local Bernina dealer, so I figured I would promote machine work. My wonderful friend, Marae, in Arizona, machine quilted both these quilts for me. She did such a nice job. I don't know it you can tell, but she cross-hatched the background and did a nice big cable in the border. I requested an old fashioned look, and that is what she did!

I should have patterns ready for these by the middle of October--as fast as I can get them published! Wish me luck!

Just a note: For those of you who like to visit my Dad's blog, he has a couple of new entries.

CHRISTMAS APPLIQUE

Here is my latest project! Remember I mentioned scheduling a class when I had not made the quilt yet? Well, this is it. The center design is from a vintage quilt that caught my fancy, then I added a sawtooth border. I really loved the cheddar in the original and was excited to have the perfect color, thanks to Judie Rothermel's wonderful reproduction lines. The outer border is from Judie's latest Christmas line. There is no cheddar in the fabric, but it looks as though there is a hint and it brings the whole thing together. Next time you are in your LQS take a look at this fabric and see if you agree. This piece is hand appliqued. I kind of got hooked on that after the Home Sweet Home quilt. I am doing another by machine applique because the class I am teaching is at the Bernina shop, A Different Touch, here in town. By the way, the background isn't as white as it appears here. More the color of muslin.

I am still sewing in the DR because I am still without AC in my sewing room and office. I can sit here in the office for short periods of time, but sewing is another story. At this point my repairman is probably afraid to face me. He claims he went to California (3 weeks ago!) and forgot his cell phone. What are the chances?

Meanwhile, I finished a couple of good murder mysteries, An Unquiet Grave, and A Thousand Bones, written by two women who collaborate and write under the name P. J. Parrish. My husband enjoyed them also.

HOME SWEET HOME IN PROGRESS

As usual, I keep jumping around on projects. Anyone out there identify? I am almost done with the signature blocks! yay! I can't mail them Monday, because it is President's Day and there is no mail service. But Tuesday for sure, they will be off to Cynthia in Australia. Bless her heart for taking this on! All the sorting and shipping for 40 of us quilt bloggers-we appreciate it Cynthia!

I have been working on the Home Sweet Home quilt with my friends. I have two blocks done. This quilt is so much fun that it is an effort to force myself to do other stuff. I am not an accomplished appliquer, but I do enjoy it, and hopefully, after this is quilted, I will have a quilt that I am happy with. It all takes time: choosing fabrics, preparing the pieces, etc. We all must love the process or we would just buy something pre-made. Right? I do love the process. I love to dig through my stash looking for the piece of fabric that is just right. Sometimes it takes a while, and I change my mind a couple of times before I am satified. I love being able to machine stitch the bigger pieces and then hand stitch the smaller pieces. I am using the method of machine applique that the Blackbird Design girls taught us, and I know Barbara Brackman and others teach it as well. But for the smaller or trickier pieces I am happy to use a needle and thread. There is satifaction in using a needle and thread that you don't get from a machine. And I say that while having great love for my sewing machine. In fact, I would be lost without my sewing machine! But handwork is a whole 'nother love.

Also pictured is my friend Sue, and the beautiful bird she just finished from the BBD book, Birds of a Feather. Take a close up look of how she placed the bird fabric so the eye is in the right place. Then she added a teeny-tiny piping around the block as a frame. Really nicely done!

Well, I am off to see what today holds. Hopefully I will get some sewing in!